Through Masai Land: A journey of exploration among the snowclad volcanic mountains and strange tribes of Eastern Equatorial Africa. Being the narrative of the Royal Geographical Society's expedition to Mount Kenia and Lake Victoria Nyanza, 1883-1884. -

London, Sampson Low, 1885. . First edition, presentation copy from Thomson, 8vo, xii, 583 pp., frontispiece, numerous wood-engraved illustrations, 14 full-page, 2 coloured folding maps, original green cloth gilt ruled in black, pictorial gilt vignette to upper cover, neatly recased, a good copy. presentation copy on the half-title "to David McIntosh with the Author's Compliments. Lokoja. March 27th."David McIntosh was an agent of the National African Company, the major British trading company in West Africa, in the Niger Delta.The rare first edition. Thomson was a British geologist and explorer who played an important part in the Scramble for Africa. He was the first European to enter several regions of eastern Africa and his writings are outstanding contributions to geographical knowledge, exceptional for their careful records and surveys. His motto is often quoted to be 'He who goes gently, goes safely; he who goes safely, goes far'.'In 1882 the Royal Geographical Society launched what was to be Thomson's major expedition, to try to find the shortest route from Zanzibar to Uganda. Travelling unarmed from the coastal city of Mombasa, in modern Kenya, he went by way of Kilimanjaro, surviving two crossings through the country of the Masai people, who had previously barred passage. He was the first European to note the existence of Lake Baringo, and he reached Lake Victoria on December 10, 1882' (Encyclopaedia Britannica). Thomson's gazelle and Thomson's Falls are named after him.The work provided Rider Haggard with the inspiration for King Solomon's Mines. Czech p164; Hilmy 286.